The solution provided in this article does work with some caveats. It requires issuing the command gpupdate twice if you want to see it take effect right away. The first gpupdate creates the power plan. The second one sets the new plan as active. (I did not have patience to wait to see how long it would take for a single plan with Update type to take effect.)

Another solution is to create 2 power plans with the same name and settings. The one processed first must be a Create type. The second should be an Update type. This causes the new plan to be created and set as default with one gpupdate.

I also noted that gpupdate /force when used with one power plan of Update type does set the new plan as active.